Savoury
The beauty of cooking is that there are no rules – the cyclone played havoc on the trees and countless mangoes, ripe and unripe, littered the ground, cut short of their life span. And if you know me, I cannot see waste of any sort.
I had a big bag of them sent across, and most of it turned into Mango Chutney which sits well in the fridge for weeks. But a small portion I set aside to experiment with. This rice recipe is an amalgamation of various other recipes, and adapted to my tastes – I cannot put a label on it and call it Gujarati, from southern India or just from air – you will have to take your own meaning! This recipe is adaptable to your pantry and of course tastes. I use urad dal in the rice, but you can use sesame seeds, channa dal – anything that gives it it’s crunch!
The Recipe
Serves 2
Ingredients
- ½ cup uncooked rice
- 1 spoon sesame oil
- 1 large raw mango
- 2 red dry chillies
- 2 tsp white urad dal (or white sesame seeds, channa dal)
- 2 tbsp ghee
- 5-8 curry leaves
- 1 tsp salt
- Dry masala:
- 2 red chillies
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- ½ tsp mustard seeds
- pinch of hing
- ½ tsp sugar or jaggery – optional if the mango is too sour for your taste
Instructions
- Cook the rice in boiling salted water till tender but not mushy. Drain the excess water and stir in some oil lightly with a fork to keep the grains separate.
- Make the dry masala by putting all together in a mortar and pestle and ground
- Peel and grate the mango. Mix the dry masala and the mango into the cooked rice.
- Heat the ghee in a pan and brown the dal lightly. Add chillies and curry leaves and fry a little. Put the rice in and stir well. Cover with a well-fitting led and allow to rest over very low heat till ready to serve.
